1. Field of the Invention
The exemplary embodiments of the present invention generally relate to systems and methods for Digital Rights Management, and more particularly to a system and method for supplying and managing rights expressions.
2. Description of Related Art
One of the most important needs to enable the development of widespread distribution of digital works, for example, documents or other content in forms readable by computers, and management of the use of digital works via electronic means, and the Internet in particular, is the ability to designate and enforce the intellectual property rights and other rights of content owners, consumers and other stakeholders during the distribution and use of digital works. Efforts to meet this need have been termed Intellectual Property Rights Management (IPRM), Digital Property Rights Management (DPRM), Intellectual Property Management (IPM), Rights Management (RM), and Electronic Copyright Management (ECM), collectively referred to as Digital Rights Management (DRM) herein. There are a number of issues to be considered in effecting a DRM System. For example, authentication, authorization, accounting, payment and financial clearing, rights specification, rights verification, rights enforcement, and document protection issues should be addressed. Commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,235, U.S. Pat. No. 5,629,980, U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,012, U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,443, U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,403, U.S. Pat. No. 6,233,684, and 6,236,971, the entire disclosures of all of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein, disclose DRM systems addressing these and other issues.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,012 discloses a system for controlling the distribution of digital documents. Each rendering device has a repository associated therewith. A predetermined set of usage transaction steps define a protocol used by the repositories for enforcing usage rights associated with a document. Usage rights persist with the document content. The usage rights can permit various manners of use of the content, such as viewing only, use once, distribution, and the like. Usage rights can be contingent on payment or satisfaction of other conditions and variables. Conceptually, a repository can include a set of functional specifications defining core functionality. A repository can include a trusted system in that the repository can maintain physical integrity, communications integrity and behavioral integrity. A repository can be removable or stationary, can be big or small or portable, can be in any suitable shape, such as a card or smart card, or can have other functionalities, such as a microprocessor.
The use and distribution of digital content, for example, documents or other information that can be rendered by a computer or other device, can be controlled using usage rights and conditions. This permits digital content to be distributed in a flexible manner while protecting the rights of the content owner and permitting the content owner, and others adding value to transactions, to produce a revenue stream from the distribution. However, tangible items, such as goods and services, typically cannot be distributed in such a flexible manner.
Auctions, reverse auctions, aggregation mechanisms, and other distribution models can be used to distribute goods and services in a more flexible manner. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,620 discloses a system for matching a destination and unspecified-time with an airline flight to permit airlines to fill otherwise empty seats. However, the disclosed system merely matches a traveler with an airline ticket and typically does not permit the flexible distribution of various services and goods.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,041,308 discloses a system for encouraging buyers to submit Conditional Purchase Offers (CPOs) to a CPO management system for a desired product. The CPO management system processes each received CPO to determine whether one or more sellers are willing to accept a given CPO. While this system can be applied to more diverse goods and services, the disclosed system also is merely a mechanism for matching buyers to sellers.
Notwithstanding new business models and approaches to selling various goods and services, such as those discussed above, the sale and exchange of goods and services typically still relies on legal theories and relationships for enforcing behavior. For example, the parties to each transaction ultimately have to agree, either directly or indirectly, on the parameters for delivering the goods and services, such as price, quantities, and the item identity. Accordingly, trade of goods and services can be restrained by legal and relationship issues. Additionally, there is a need for business models and information technology systems to recognize that there are stakeholders in addition to content owners and consumers.